CHAPTER 1
I woke up to the reeking smell. I slowly get up off the cold metal floor. “Where the hell am I?“ I ask my question lingering in the air for a couple of moments. I stand up, my balance, terrible. “God my head hurts“ I mumble as I rub my face. I start to walk to the door into the corridor. As soon as I open the door I get greeted with a more intensified version of the reeking smell. “Oh God, what is that?“ I say as I stumble back. This time not due to the weakness in my legs, but the smell. It’s so intense I don’t know how I should handle it. After a couple moments I regain my composer and plug my nose as I walk into the corridor.
I take a couple steps in then start getting an uneasy feeling… Someone’s watching me. I quickly turn around to try and see who it is. “Hello? Is someone there?” I ask only to get no response but my echoes through the hall. “This isn’t funny, I need to know where I am“ I started walking to where I felt the presents. I reach the door frame and now I’m looking at the hallway I came from. “Hello?“ I ask again hoping for a response only to get left with my echo. I look around and see nothing.
I turn back and start looking around the corridor, the stench still heavy in the air. I can’t put a finger on what the smell actually is, or what it even smells remotely close to. I walk around trying to find any life on what looks like some sort of ship, or home research base. “Hello? Anyone there?“ I feel like I’m asking that question over and over and over… an ongoing sequence that won’t stop.
I reach another door. I slowly walked over to it, revealing a Conservatory. I look out the perimeter walls that have the floor to ceiling windows. As I look out I see the outside world, everything is red and orange. Just like nothing exists. The burning absence of things, or of life. It’s bright out there, almost an unbearable amount. As I see this foreign world I can’t help but let out a gasp of its underlying beauty. I can’t help but get closer to the window. I instinctively reach my hand out towards the window only to get greeted with a burn on my hand. “ow“ I let out a sharp cry in pain as I burned myself. I shake my hand trying to get rid of the sting.
I quickly got back to what I was originally doing. Getting broken out of the trance-like state I was in. I walk through the Conservatory taking in every detail as I’m looking for a sign of life. I can’t help but keep glancing at the window. It’s like there’s something I just can’t shake off. The feeling of longing, the feeling of being something… It draws me in closer. I bump into a wall and it snaps me out of this trans-like state. My eyes focused on the wall in front of me.To my surprise there was a touch screen with a passcode on it.
“What the hell? Who would put a passcode on the door? This is stupid.” I mutter as I punch in random codes. Each one gives me an error message as the wrong codes get punched in. As I continued mindlessly getting codes, I noticed the gut wrenching smell went down. It’s not as harsh as it was before, it’s more tolerable. I either just got used to it in this short amount of time, which I highly doubt. The other option is the smell’s intensity went down slightly.
I take a deep breath as each code, ignoring the slight flavor it brings to my tongue with every breath. Meanwhile, each code keeps denying. I take a step back from the screen and look at it annoyed. There’s a couple of worn out places on the screen, clearly where people have punched in codes over and over again. But to actually figure it out would take awhile for me.
I can feel the growing irritation swirling in my stomach. I’m too tired to deal with this. I go back to where I came from, this time ignoring the windows of the outside trying to avoid getting drawn into the beauty of the outside again. As I reach the door to the corridor I see a strange plant. I stop and look at it for a couple of seconds then decide to step closer.
As I step closer I see the plant has some solution on it, it’s not fertilizer but something more. It’s a burgundy sludge and looks like a middle school concoction, though I can’t even remember my middle school years. I see the nearest shovel in a basket on the ground and I start poking at this mysterious sludge. It doesn’t move as I poke it but instead separates on its own. Some of it is getting stuck on the shovel, refusing to let go. My face scrunches up as I see the sludge closer. “Ugh this is so disgusting.” I couldn’t find any other words to describe my disgust as I looked at it.
It’s almost like something that isn’t normal. “What the hell even is this” It sloshes around on the shovel, I tilt the shovel so the sludge slides off on the pile. “I’ll deal with this later” My voice filled with annoyance. I get back up and start walking through the door to the corridor. As I open the door I get hit with that awful stench again. “Oh god!” I say in pure disgust as my face scrunches up even more, to the point of a headache. Definitely didn’t get used to the smell.I plug my nose again so I can’t smell anything.
I walk quickly through the corridor so the smell wont seep through the nose plugs. Well… As much as It wont anyway. As I reach the door I feel a daunting presence. I stop in my tracks and slowly turn around. “Hello?... Is anyone there?” my voice lingers in the air for a couple moments. “God, I can’t believe I’m seeing stuff. I really am tired” I say as I rub my eyes and turn back to the hall. I mean that’s all, I am just tired. It’s all a dream.
I remember seeing some jackets that I can use as a makeshift bed. As I step into the room and close the door the smell goes down a little. I layer some of the coats to make a somewhat padded area for me to sleep in. I lay down and look at the ceiling of the hallway.
I can’t help but think as I lay there. ‘Why am I even here?’ That question keeps me up for a while. I don’t know what to think anymore. It’s all just so unreal.
I keep feeling like there’s a pair of eyes on me. Like some things are not right. I look to both sides of me not knowing what to do. Whenever I reach out to this mysterious source I just get left in the dark. I take a deep breath in, I’m sleep deprived, that’s all’ I turn on my side to face the wall closest to me. I can feel the coldness of the floor slipping past all the coats
It almost feels comforting. The coldness of the floor against my body. This coldness calms me down. I can feel myself slowly drifting off to sleep, completely ignoring the presence I feel behind me. I can feel it all fade away.
